Ten NASCAR Drivers Who Had Their Careers Cut Short
Fireball Roberts
A college student by day and a dirt track racer by night, Glenn, Fireball, Roberts, won his first Daytona road course victory at the age of the 18 and went on to amass 33 victories during his career on the national circuit. This feat was especially impressive since Roberts career took place during the time that NASCAR races were transitioning from small dirt tracks to high banked and high speed superspeedway tracks.
Winning wasn’t the only thing that Fireball excelled at, he also finished in the top-five 47% of the time and the top-ten 59% percent of the time during his career in NASCAR. Despite Roberts winning ways and the amazing consistency he showed throughout his career, Roberts was never able to win a championship in NASCAR, his best finish being second in 1950.
In another case of a career cut tragically short, Fireball Roberts died as a result of second and third degree burns that he suffered on over 80% of his body during The World 600 in 1964. The incident occurred during the opening laps of the race, when Roberts crashed his car while trying to avoid a collision between Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson. His car ended up nailing the retaining wall, flipping over and bursting into flames.
Although it was originally thought that Roberts would recover from his injuries, he contracted sepsis and pneumonia while in the hospital and died after falling into a coma a few days later. He died as a result of his injuries on July 2nd 1964.
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